Volvo Cars To Push Hybrid Vehicles In India, Seeks Incentives

Volvo introduced its first plug-in hybrid SUV in India back in 2016 in the form of Volvo XC90 T8 Excellence Plug-In Hybrid. While it announced that all its vehicles will get plug in hybrid and electric iteration from 2019, the Swedish carmakers now wants to push its PHEV in the Indian market as well, considering the government provides with incentives and lowers import duty. A senior Volvo Cars Group official said that the company is looking its plug in portfolio in the country, but will wait for the Indian government to create an ecosystem for the hybrids and electric cars to sustain.

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"In order for us to do better business in India, incentive for electrified vehicles would be great," Volvo Cars Group Senior VP Paul Welander told in an interview to PTI.

Welander also emphasized on the importance of sops for eco-friendly vehicles and that it can help the company to drive in its products easily in to the market.

He said, "Sops for such eco-friendly vehicles can help the company drive in more such products into the country where government is already pushing for environmental-friendly vehicles."

Welander also mentioned that the government should work on reducing the import duty and create a competitive environment for all the carmakers. In the Budget 2018-19, the government increased customs duty on completely knocked down (CKD) imports of motor vehicles, motor cars, motorcycles from 10 per cent to 15 per cent. Citing examples of China and the US, he said such duties are much lower in other parts of the globe and India should also be "competitive." However, to tackle this, Volvo started to locally assemble its products starting with the XC90 since October last year.

Also Read: Volvo XC40 Listed On The Carmaker's India Website; Launch By Mid-2018

Volvo Cars India Managing Director Charles Frump said, "Going forward for us the clear path is electric but we are looking to get some understanding of the path for the future. So in our mind it is clear to take hybrid route to full electric vehicles."

However, hybrid and electric vehicles attract more tax than the conventional vehicles, as it has an overall tax of 43 per cent.